Meerkat Exams at the Zoo

What is involved in the animal’s yearly or every other year
physical examinations? Quite a bit
actually! For example, today two
meerkats came to the veterinary clinic in their carriers ready for their examinations,
well perhaps not ready, but they were there.
These animals were then anesthetized with a gas anesthesia called
sevoflurane and then intubated, or a tube placed in their trachea to continue
breathing oxygen and the sevoflurane to remain anesthetized.

After that, a monitor that measures the
carbon dioxide in the air that the meerkat exhales, the oxygenation of the
blood, the animal’s blood pressure, an EKG to monitor the heart, and a
thermometer were attached to the animal.
All of this is to ensure that the animal is doing well under
anesthesia. Once I check the microchip to verify which animal we are working on, the physical exam begins. Several steps take place during a physical, including:

Listening to the heart and lungs and check for any murmur of the
heart or abnormal lung sounds

Examine the eyes and ears

I palpate the belly
(abdomen) to check for any masses

Trim the toe nails

Ultrasound the organs in the
belly to make sure there are no abnormalities present and I even measure the
kidneys to keep a record of their size over time

We draw blood to check for the levels of the
white and red blood cells as well as the “chemistry profile” that will tell me
how the liver, kidney, pancreas, etc. are working

After all that, it's time for a tooth cleaning! We use an ultrasonic scaler and hand scaling
instruments from Dr. Stilwill, an area dentist, and then polish the teeth when
they are clean, just as what would happen at your dentist’s office. However, in this instance we found a tooth
(premolar) that was too loose, so I extracted it and placed antibiotics in the
hole from the tooth. Almost done! Now we now
treat the animal with antibiotics and pain relief for the tooth extraction, and
then vaccinate the animal against canine and feline viruses as well as a rabies
vaccine.

You may notice we shave the hair on the
hip of the animals. Why is that? So we can look at them and remember which one
needs the antibiotics for the tooth extraction and it is easily identifiable.
Animals like meerkats have such similar physical features, that they can all look the same! Remember that second meerkat? You guessed it - time to do it all again! Once the animal is back in its exhibit, it is time for the expert skill of the zookeepers to be able to trick the animal we had to extract the tooth from into eating the medicine hidden in a treat, and not letting the other
meerkats steal it. So far, so good, they
convinced the meerkat to eat the first dose!